Ring of Fire high on new deputy minister’s agenda – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 27, 2015)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Dive into David de Launay’s bio and it’s easy to decipher how two decades of provincial policy and special project work have prepared him for the job as Ontario’s new deputy minister for Northern Development and Mines.

Not surprisingly, finding a way to jumpstart the stalled Ring of Fire project is top of mind for de Launey who slid into the chair in early January after his predecessor George Ross left last summer to take a similar posting with the Government of the Yukon.

De Launey is not a new player being introduced into the fray. He shifts over from Aboriginal Affairs where he was deputy minister. Prior to that he was assistant deputy minister with the Ring of Fire Secretariat, handling relations with First Nation communities impacted by the potential mine development, and served stints with Cabinet Office and Natural Resources.

He’s crossed paths with many of the chiefs and Ring of Fire mining executives, and recruited former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci to serve as Ontario’s negotiator for the regional framework agreement.

Taking on meaty projects is nothing new for the Montreal-raised public servant who worked behind the scenes of the employee-led buyout of Spruce Falls Paper Mill in Kapuskasing and the transition of Elliot Lake from uranium mining town to retirement mecca.

Very early in his career, he was involved in consultations with the Moose Cree on evaluating and measuring the environmental impacts of future hydroelectric development in the Far North.

It laid the groundwork for a partnership with Ontario Power Generation to redevelop the Lower Mattagami River that delivered a 25 per cent equity stake to the Cree, along with heavy equipment operator jobs and camp contracts.

“That, to me, is a model of the different things you need to do to move forward in Northern Ontario,” he said.

Later on as the Ministry of Natural Resources’ lands and waters director, he helped negotiate a landmark agreement with eight Great Lakes states and Quebec to protect those inland seas which resulted in a very powerful constitutionally-protected arrangement.

“That was a very complex, multi-lateral negotiation that I was the lead in Ontario. We were doing something pretty innovative and creative, and getting a deal in the end.”

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